Symposium on Immanence and Transcendence in Antiquity

Today and tomorrow the latest symposium of the Monotheism-Polytheism Graduiertenkolleg will be concerned with the question of transcendence and immanence.

Johannes Zachhuber, Oxford: “Transzendenz und Immanenz als Interpretationskategorien antiken Denkens im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert”
Anna Clark, Oxford: “Imperial Divine Qualities”
Walther Sallaberger, Munich: “Natur und Kultur im Spiegel des mesopotamischen Pantheons”
Jula Wildberger, Paris: “Göttliche Immanenz und Person in der Stoa”
Jens Halfwassen, Heidelberg: “Transzendenz als Grundmotiv der antiken Metaphysik”
Stefan Alkier, Frankfurt: “Machtfragen. Theologie und Kosmologie der Johannesapokalypse”
Jean Louis Ska, Rom: “Herrlichkeit Gottes im Alten Testament”
Kianoosh Rezania, Göttingen, “Immanenz und Transzendenz im Zoroastrismus: Ihre Absenz, ihre Nachbarkonzepte und ihre Entwicklung”
Antonio Loprieno, Basel: “Götterbilder-Gottesbilder-Weltbilder. Evolutionstheorie und Kulturwissenschaft am Beispiel ägyptischer Todesvorstellungen”
Todd Lawson, Toronto: “Transendence and Immanence in the Quran. A Critique of Categories”

In my view this symposium is very welcome. The categories of immanence and transcendence are frequently deployed in biblical scholarship with little consideration of their potential limitations or problems.

OTSEM in Göttingen

The annual meeting of OTSEM begins today and runs until Wednesday. This is a meeting of graduate students, post-docs and faculty in Old Testament from Scandinavian institutions and the university of Göttingen. This year Oxford are joining for the first time. As well as two keynote addresses (R. Smend, “Wellhausen as OT scholar”; J. Barton, “Law and Narrative in the Pentateuch”), there are also papers by the doctoral students and post-docs.

There is a great deal of good material, but of particular interest are:

Francis Borchardt (Helsinki), Letter of Aristeas 1-40 and Judean National Identity

Gunnar Magnus Eidsvåg (SMT Stavanger), Samaritans in LXX Amos 6

Anne Katrine Gudme (Copenhagen), Modes of Religion: An Alternative to ‘Popular’/‘Official’ Religion

Hanne Løland (MF Oslo), Wishing for Death of Fighting for Life? Death Wish as Negotiating Strategy in the Hebrew Bible

Juha Pakkala (Helsinki), The Date of the Oldest Edition of Deuteronomy

Harald Samuel (Göttingen), From Priest to Patriarch: Genealogical Speculation around Levi

Ruth Sauerwein (Göttingen), A Few Observations on the Title “Man of God” in the Elisha Cycle

Peter Skippervold (Oslo), A Tradition of Interactive Learning in the Hebrew Bible?

Ola Wikander (Lund), Drought, Death and the Sun in Ugarit and Ancient Israel

Launch at SBL

There will be a formal launch of the Early Jewish Monotheism(s) project at the annual meeting of the SBL in New Orleans. Friends of the University of Göttingen, Humboldtians and those interested in the research project are warmly invited to attend the reception at 9pm, November 23rd 2009 in Orleans/Rosalie/St Claude in the JW Marriott New Orleans.

Apply for a Doctoral Studentship

We are currently seeking applications for three doctoral studentships for study at the University of Göttingen within the larger project of Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms. The project focuses on the different forms that monotheistic belief and practice took in the exilic and Persian periods with an emphasis on the relevant biblical texts. Click here to read the description and application information.

Coining Monotheism

The coin which is the ‘logo’ of our project website well illustrates the variety of factors involved in the emergence of Jewish monotheisms. This unique coin (catalogued as TC 242.5 in the British Museum) from Israel/Palestine bears traces of the Persian Empire in slow decline and of Greek and Phoenician trade. There is no published coin similar to TC 242.5 in diameter, weight, artistic quality and image. In spite of the uniqueness of the coin, its authenticity is beyond doubt. The depiction of a seated deity on the coin indicates something of the religion and iconic practice of the people designing, authorising, and using the coin. An artefact like this perplexes in a context often assumed to refrain from images, especially from anthropomorphic representations of God. It raises various questions including: is the coin inscribed YHW(H)? What deity would be anthropomorphically depicted? What does the various imagery mean? How does the imagery fit into the context of Jewish aniconism?

Click here to read the entire article.

P's Gordian Knot

The priestly material (P) is widely recognized to be monotheistic. But where should one begin when seeking to analyze P’s theology? This is no idle question, but draws us deeply into the problems of determining the extent of P and the definition of monotheism.

In a perceptive analysis of the first volume of Jacob Milgrom’s impressive Leviticus commentary, Rolf Rendtorff articulated a sense of disorientation in reading Milgrom’s work. For historical-critical scholarship P means primarily the narrative thread, which parallels the non-priestly parts of the Pentateuch. For Milgrom P means Leviticus, and one seeks for P’s theology there. There is not even a backward glance to the other parts of P in the Pentateuch.

Milgrom is clear about the monotheism of Leviticus, but this book is not easily equated with monotheism, especially since monotheism has often been characterized as ethical, often as a contrast to ritualistic (still Gnuse). Milgrom deploys Yehezkel Kaufmann’s tendentious contrast between pagan and Israelite religion to bring Leviticus and monotheism into shape. Konrad Schmid’s exposition of P’s monotheism, on the other hand, begins – and virtually ends with – an exposition of P’s creation account in Genesis 1. This would accord with the sense that for P the primeval history presents the paradigm for the world. To understand P we need only make sense of this cosmic blueprint (cf. Lohfink).

So, how can we draw these different senses of priestly theology together? The solution of much recent redaction-critical scholarship has been to see the end of the priestly Grundschrift (Pg) with the completion of the Tabernacle in Exodus 25-40. But is this not just a case of cutting the Gordian knot?

New SBL Unit: Early Jewish Monotheisms

At the forthcoming annual meeting of the SBL in New Orleans there will be a unit formation session for a unit devoted to the examination of Jewish monotheism in the exilic and post-exilic period.

The session, "Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms", will be held from 4.00-6.30 on Monday 23rd November in Poydras, Sheraton Hotel.

The following papers will be given which will provide a basis for discussing the future direction of the unit:

• Nathan MacDonald, Göttingen/St Andrews
  "Monotheism after Deutero-Isaiah?" (20 mins)
• Hermann Spieckermann, Göttingen
  "Monotheism in Context" (20 mins)
• Loren Stuckenbruck, Princeton Theological Seminary
  "Monotheism in the Early Second Temple Period: A View from the Later Second Temple Period" (20 mins)

There will then be a discussion. After the session we will retire to a local restaurant.